Can you say, "Vacation?"

We've waited 3 long years but it's finally here! Our first REAL vacation where we actually get to fly on a plane and go somewhere tropical. I don't consider a trip a vacation unless it entails the ocean, warm weather and sleeping somewhere other than in a tent. Although I do enjoy camping trips, a Kauai vacation ranks up there as one of my favorite vacation spots.

I meant to post this picture earlier from my 10K run a few weeks back. I love how Darren is rooting me on in this last stretch before the finish line.



Darren also turned 8 last weekend. I'm not sure when my little boy got to be not so little anymore but I am trying to treasure these last few years before the "tween" years. I don't even want to think that far ahead! So we finally succumbed to the years of asking for a Nintendo DS. We justified the purchase by acknowledging how well he is doing academically in school and that this hand-held gaming system sure would make our 5 1/2 hour flight from SF to Lihue much easier!









Yesterday Ginger & I attended a Scrap Pink! all-day crop in Oakley. It was put on by Crop Til You Drop Retreats. We scrapped from 10am - 9pm and I must say we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I brought a portable DVD player so we watched 5 movies while we scrapped. I also made this:


I call it my 10-hour labor of love. It was fun but laborious to make due to glitter issues and hand-sewing the crepe paper ruffles. But I love it!

Mission Accomplished

I finished my 10K run yesterday morning and had a blast. I ran it in 1 hour and 1 minute.

Thanks to a nearby tropical hurricane we had thunder, lightning and light rain Saturday night and Sunday morning but just before the start of the run the rain stopped and we were left with temperatures in the mid-60's...perfect for a long run!


Crazy as it sounds, I am seriously considering training for a half-marathon. Just the thought of it makes me nervous but the feeling you get from setting a goal, striving towards it and accomplishing it is such a great feeling.

Off to a barbeque with the family and then I'm heading into a busy week next week. Only 2 more weeks left of school before fall break. Yay!

Race Day - T minus 3 days!

I'll be running my first 10K (6.2 miles) on Saturday in Danville to benefit Hats Off America which provides financial support to families of fallen soldiers. I ran my last training run this morning so wish me luck on Saturday morning!

a new challenge blog and some photos

If you haven't heard, there's a new challenge blog that premiered today. It's called Point Blank Period. The Design Team is a list of who's who in the scrapbooking world so you should check it out if you haven't already. I've already snagged myself their blinkie! Rock it out, girls!

I plan to participate in their first challenge as I am planning to start working on a book of "Me" and their first challenge is me-oriented. {Check out Cocoa Daisy's forum's "daily prompt" which is what I am going to follow.}

The closest I've been to scrapping about myself was a daily journal I did in a class by Kerri Lynn. On a side note - did you see KL's Kenner Road sneak-peeks for September? Her specialty kit, "Cautionary Tale" looks like something fun to do for Halloween.

So I spent the past 4 days last weekend camping in Big Sur with a group of friends and we all had a blast! It was incredibly hot so we spent all of Saturday {literally!} in the river. The water was cold but refreshing and the kids swam, splashed and rafted 'til their hearts' content. Here are a few pics from the trip. Enjoy!




















I took Darren out of school for 2 days so the poor guy still had to do his classwork and
homework. Aren't I a good mommy?!?






















































Oh, and today's 5-mile run felt like I hadn't run in a week. Oh, wait...I think it HAS been a week!